


Valentine's Past

by Stonyinspirationwriter



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, OC ava stark-rogers - Freeform, Parent Tony Stark, Past Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Pining, Pining Tony, Post-Break Up, Separation, Soap Opera, Stony - Freeform, Superhusbands (Marvel), The Ava Stark-Rogers series, Tony with a daughter, Valentine's Day, original child character - Freeform, valentine's day angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 13:15:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9822161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stonyinspirationwriter/pseuds/Stonyinspirationwriter
Summary: This story involves Valentine’s Day, spaghetti, a pinning Tony, and a cheesy soap opera reenactment.





	

**Author's Note:**

> No need to be familiar with The Ava Stark-Rogers series in order to enjoy this piece separately.
> 
> Series of shorts involving Steve Rogers and Tony Stark with a daughter. Will hopefully lead up to a longer story that involves her transition into becoming the Iron Woman. (Series can be read in any order)

_“I know you love me”, the man declares._

_The reluctant woman stands before him, arms crossed over her chest. For a moment she seems to waver, but she silences any conflicting thoughts with a dramatic shake of her head. It doesn’t matter, she says, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I just can’t give you my heart again.”_

“Don’t take him back!” Tony says to the television screen. 

_“But you’re the love of my life”, the man insists. “We can make it work this time.”_

“Oh, grow up, buddy!”Tony growls, watching the screen with disdain. 

Tony is seated at the dinning room table in his penthouse. 

“Can you believe this garbage?” Tony exclaims, turning to his ten month year old daughter seated in her high chair.

Mariana sauce stains her face and cheeks red, and her training utensil lay forgotten in favor of using tiny hands to clutch fist fulls of pasta. She watches her father with mild curiosity as she guides strands of noodles into her mouth. Tony immediately forgets his train of thought and chuckles at the scene before him. 

“You’re a mess, kid.“ He takes out his phone and snaps yet another photo of his messy-eater. “At least someone likes my cooking”, Tony notes, an amused smile playing across his lips. “I propose a toast”, he declares, holding up his glance of cranberry juice. “To the best Valentine a guy could ever ask for.”

 Ava’s too engrossed in her meal to pay her father any attention. After a few moments he curiously looks back to the screen.

_The man slowly inches closer to the reluctant woman. “You and I, Donna, we are something magical”, he murmurs, wiping tears from her eyes._

_“We’re something worth fighting for…”_

In Tony’s mind’s eye the man on the screen morphs into Steve, while Tony, in turn, has taken the place of the woman.  


_“I can’t do this again.” Tony insists. “Loving you hurts too much.”_  


_“You don’t think my heart breaks every time you walk into a room?“ Steve presses, wiping the tears from Tony’s cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. “But do you really want to throw this away? What we had, what we are?”_

_“I’m afraid.” Tony whimpers._

_“Me too.” Steve admits, his eyes misty."Better reason to take the chance.“_

_They kiss passionately, fervently, tongues and mouths hungrily clashing._

_Steve is lifting him off his feet, and Tony wraps his legs around Steve’s waist as he walks them backwards into the bedroom. They’re completely nude in an instant. Tony’s eyes are shut, a look of pure bliss on his face as his fingers roam Steve slowly thrusts into him, causing Tony to open his mouth in a silent moan._

“Da!”

The sound of Ava’s voice jolts Tony back to reality.

There’s a passionate sex montage on the screen, all theatrics and sensual camera angles, but nevertheless inappropriate for developing mind’s.

"Friday, turn it off!” Tony urgently commands, the screen instantly goes blank.

Logically, he knows the kid has no possible inkling of what the hell is going on, but the growing boner in his pants just makes the overall situation a thousand times more awkward.

It’s not something either of them should be watching.

The realization of just how pathetic you’ve become is a hard pill to swallow, and Tony feels it like a punch in his gut.

Fucking Steve. 

Fucking holiday.

The whole concept of this day is a complete joke.

A consumers holiday that peddles out heart-shaped chocolates and jewelry, and flowers, all in the name of romance. During his playboy years, those were cheap trinkets he’d give away on a daily basis to attractive women that were likely to sleep with him. It wasn’t until he and Pepper had become an item that the day took on an unexpected significance. 

Then Steve came along, and yes, their relationship was, to put it mildly, unconventional. Steve didn’t like extravagant gestures, which was a difficult concept for Tony to grasp at first. Naturally, Valentines Day didn’t hold the utmost priority in their lives, but it never went unacknowledged. 

_“Who would have thought that Tony Stark was such a sap, Steve use to tell him.  
_

_“You’re one to talk, Captain Sap”, Tony would respond._

He wonders if Steve already has someone to keep his sheets warm. Was he with them right now, a one of their favorite restaurants? That little hole in the wall, rustic Italian place that was always filled to the brim with tacky decorations? Or _The Happy Fortune Cookie_ Chinese restaurant that Steve happened to save from a pathetic robbery attempt, and the owners would insist in expressing their gratitude in the form of free dumplings.  


Steve was his longest relationship, of course Tony was bound to think of Steve on a day like this, just like it had reminded him of Pepper after the split.

He was kidding himself. He didn’t need Valentine’s Day to think of Steve. Tony would inevitably run across something that would remind him of Steve, or during a quiet moment he’d wonder what Steve was doing at that same exact moment.

Tony can’t help but wonder how different his life would have been if Ava’s mother was still alive. He would of surely perfected the doting partner role by now with the mother of his child. And he surely wouldn’t be thinking about Steve right now.

Pepper.

Steve.

Ava’s mother.

His ghosts of Valentine’s past.

Tony lets out a frustrated sigh. Do yourself a favor and don’t ever fall in love. If there is one lesson of wisdom I can impart on you let it be this. 

Ava’s eyelids begin to droop even as she persists to lazily chew.

The buzz of a text message sounds, and Tony’s heart does a somersault in his chest when he sees his name.  


**  
**

**Steve:  
**

**Nice. That’s one mess I wouldn’t want to clean up.**

  


It took Tony a moment to comprehend what Steve was referring to before realizing what had occurred.  


He’d sent one of the photos of Ava in a mass group text, but he hadn’t meant to include Steve. He knew that he shouldn’t have re-added Steve as a contact, but what was the point, he knew Steve by heart. Technically, he knew every contact that he bothered to notice; he was a genius with a photographic memory.   


They weren’t on bad terms, exactly, but there was too much history between them to simply go back to being friends.  


The last time they’d seen each other was at a new years party, and being the exhausted, past-his-prime, single parent that Tony was, he had embarrassingly knocked out before midnight.  


And before that the last time they had seen each other they had slept together, and Tony had made it perfectly clear that he had no interest in going any further than that.  


The undeniable truth was that when it came to Steve Rogers, Tony fought a daily internal struggle. He was torn between wanting Steve as far away from him as possible, or wanting him at his side.

  


**Tony:**

**Ava enjoys my cooking.**

  


**Steve:**

**Looks like she was trying to dispose of it by some other means.**

  


**Tony:**

**Careful, Rogers. Don’t insult the man in charge of the gadgetry. And my marinara sauce is officially Hawkeye approved.**

**  
**

**Steve:**

**Clint also eats those frozen pb and j sandwiches without thawing them.**  


**  
**

**Tony:**

**Uncrustables. The bastard child of sandwiches. And nice try but you are confusing Bird Brain with Thor.**

**  
**

**Steve:**

**Nope. Clint has done it too.**  

**Tony:**

**Did I actually cite Barton as a commendable food critic?**

  


**Steve:**

**Yes you did.**

  


**Tony:**

**What the hell was I thinking???**

**  
**

**Steve:**

**That is always going to be one question that is impossible to answer.**

  


Tony carefully weighted his next response. He wanted to ask him if he was free. That if he managed to keep his mouth shut about his cooking that there was plenty of pasta to go around. They could just talk. No pressure, no expectations… Instead he typed:

**  
**

**Tony: Pot meet kettle. Have a nice night, Steve.**

  


 “Come on, you need a bath.”

Tony scoops up his weary daughter and makes his way to the bathroom, leaving his phone behind. 

**  
**

**Steve:**

**You too, Tony.**


End file.
